STEAMER SINKS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 106, 5 April 1926, Page 7

STEAMER SINKS

RESCUE OF THE OAPTAIN. MANY SAILORS MISSING. SEARCH BEING MADE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April .5, 10.45 a.m. SYDNEY, April 5. Tho steamer Dorrigo, bound from Sydney to Thursday Island, foundered 14 miles south-east of Double Island Point. Captain GYcy and his son were picked up by the steamer Moruya after being 34 hours on a raft. The Moruya remained in the vicinity till a shortage of coal forced her to proceed.—Press Association. BRISBANE, April 5. Neither the Dorrigo nor tho Moruya was equipped with wireless. The latter signalled the news of the sinking to the keeper of Double Island lighthouse. The steamers Bunvah and Capo York are sweeping tho seas in the hope of finding tho 22 missing members of tho crew.

Considerable wreckage has been cast up on the coast. The beaches in the vicinity are being patrolled. Captain Grey when landed at Brisbane, said he cleared Moreton Bay at midnight on Thursday. A moderate sea was running. About six o’clock on Good Friday morning tho vessel took a volume of water aboard on tho port side. This caused her to take a heavy list. The water entered the stokehold and she foundered a quarter of an hour later, rolling on to her port beam and sinking stern first. Tho deck - cargo, consisting of benzine cases of Oregon pine, broke loose just as the crew had donned their lifebelts. They made an effort to clear tho port lifeboat, but were unsuccessful on account of tho heavy list. When tho vessel went down all tho crew wero afloat, clinging to the flotsam. He saw seven men on tho capsized lifeboat and six more wero on a raft made of four pine spars 50 feet long. The other men were clinging' to isolated pieces of wreckage. The sea in the vicinity was infested with sharks.

Grave fears are entertained for the safety of the missing men.—Press Association.